


Grandma's House

by gwenwifar



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Mischief Making, Multi, Temptation, blending spaces, bookstore transformation, lots of miracling, miracle opportunities
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenwifar/pseuds/gwenwifar
Summary: As Crowley and Zira get closer, they influence each other's spaces. After initial setup will likely be a collection of mostly unrelated stories.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Kudos: 1





	Grandma's House

It all started a few months after the body swap. They had acquired the habit of spending their nights at Crowley’s flat, where Zira now had a room he didn’t sleep in, and their days at the bookstore where they both did their best not to sell any books. An old lady had come in one rainy Wednesday afternoon and spent a few hours being talked out of buying several different volumes before they ended up chatting over a cup of tea.

When she left, Crowley suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to have a section up at the front of the store just for books that were for selling. Perhaps some mass market paperbacks, a few well-chosen hardcovers from the best seller list. Nothing too special, nothing he couldn’t easily part with. Shiny new covers to tempt customers away from his special collection.

“I think that’s a splendid idea, but…” the angel hesitated, thinking it through. “I’d have to make room.”

He looked at the shelves near the front of the store critically, picked out one strategically placed between the register and the bulk of the store.

“I suppose this one would do well enough,” he mumbled, mostly to himself. “None of these books, though. They’ll have to go somewhere else.”

He started pulling books off the shelves, and when his arms were full found that Crowley had produced a box to put the books in.

“I’ll have to rearrange the whole store!” he kept mumbling. “There’s no extra shelf to just move these into,” and then louder “Crowley, dear.”

He looked over his shoulder to see that Crowley had already locked the door and turned the sign around.

“Yes, angel?” He smiled indulgently, ready to miracle the whole building taller or whatever would make the angel happy.

“Thank you,” and with a beatific smile he added "you've read my mind."

“How can I help?”

“Well, we’ll have to make room in those shelves for these, which I’m afraid will displace other books. This could take weeks!”

“Would it be easier if we took some to the flat?”

Zira froze, the idea of taking some of his precious books out of his precious bookstore not quite computing at first.

“Not many, just the extra special ones, you’d never want to part with? You could put them in your room. Not like you sleep in it, anyway.”

He was listening, and he supposed it made sense, but he was still doubtful.

“You’d still have them close, but they’d be safe from all these customers,” and that’s when inspiration hit. “No sticky hands reaching for them without gloves again. Nobody would be able to touch them there.”

It took about a week to locate and pack the extra special ones, and they miracled them over to the flat to avoid any potential damage the books might incur while being transported in the Bentley. Crowley was then dispatched to find whatever paperbacks he thought would best keep customers away from his book collection while Zira settled down to re-arrange it.

By the time Zira emerged from the back of the store, satisfied with his work, Crowley had turned the one bookcase he’d been entrusted to fill into the most tempting display he’d ever seen in a bookstore. For anyone other than a collector of rare and antique books, that is. Quite perfect, in other words.

They’d opened again the next day, and one of their very first customers was the same old lady again. This time they preemptively started with tea, and then Crowley talked her into a paperback romance novel while Zira guarded the stacks. The lady came back again and again, as suddenly did a number of people. Zira’s collection remained largely undisturbed.

They started to become familiar with some of the regulars. The old lady turned out to be Edna. She liked to read, but the she enjoyed their chats over tea just as thoroughly, and it was her idea that perhaps he should consider adding a little tea nook. Nothing too grand, perhaps just a small counter where they might sell hot tea, and a table or two to drink it at while you discuss a book purchase.

More of Zira’s extra special collection made it into the flat, and the front of the store started to look quite different. There were no rare or antique books there anymore, but rather it had turned into something more like the book aisle at a fancy superstore on one side, and a tea shop on the other, complete with a small but miraculously perfect selection of pastries. Almost nobody went past the entrance anymore, and Zira found he was quite satisfied with this arrangement.

Eventually, the books had overflowed from his room out into the living areas in the flat until it stopped feeling like the cold and sterile place it had been before and taken on more of the homey feel that had made Crowley so comfortable at the shop.

He was musing on just how much more comfortable every aspect of his daily life had become when Edna came in again, and he noticed a pattern. There always seemed to be more customers when she was in the store. Mostly they seemed to join her for tea.

He’d been mulling it over with Crowley when the thought presented itself that maybe Edna came for tea and a chat because she was lonely, and that perhaps other people joined her because she was the delightful grandmother they all wished they had. That’s when the idea was born.

They closed the store for remodeling, and this time, when it reopened, A.Z. Fell and Company had turned into Grandma’s House. The vast majority of the books had been moved either to the flat, to what had once been Zira’s apartment upstairs, or to the back room. The front of the store was now more of a gift shop, still primarily stocking books, and the tea nook, as it used to be, was gone. Instead, there was now a well-appointed, if not particularly large, kitchen, and the small tables and sofas had been moved near the big windows to create little nooks for private conversations. They glowed with comfort and warmth that might draw people in out of the London mist. Just next to the entrance area there was a space made to look rather like a small den, where shelves filled with old and used books Zira didn’t mind being handled filled most of the space. A comfy looking upholstered chair that looked as if it might have belonged to Santa at one time was placed just so, and across a small coffee table, a small sofa Crowley had spent many hours dozing in was ready for company.

There were other such spaces, like a half dozen cozy living rooms around the edges of the store. In one the shelves were full of old pictures and strange knick-knacks, and a TV sat at the ready, a collection of old movies and shows like “Wheel of Fortune”, “The Good Old Days”, and “This is Your Life” in DVD boxes neatly shelved under the TV. Another had cabinet after cabinet filled with art and craft supplies, a large worktable against the wall, and a comfy chair in the corner. There was a knitted blanket draped over it, a basket holding balls of yarn with needles stuck into them next to the chair, at the ready. Another held a bookcase filled with board games and cards and a table to play on. Two of the little dens were still empty, waiting for their purpose. The middle was left wide open.

Zira and Crowley stood in the middle, looking proudly at what they’d concocted together. Now they just had to get Grandma Edna on board.


End file.
